The Knittng Way – Part 2

I’ve been spending time in Chapter 3 of The Knitting Way. This chapter is so packed with info – my head is spinning! My big discovery is the web site for the book – theknittingway.com. If you get a copy, check out the site. It is a good add-on to the book.

So where to start… Chapter 3 is called Sacred Space so I’ll begin there.

The Yin and Yang of Knitting begins to discuss the knit side and purl side of knitting and the differences be the stitches. Knit stitches are vertical and purl stitches are more horizontal. Makes a lot of sense even if you’ve never thought about it.

Next comes combos of knit and purl stitches in the same rows (otherwise known as ribbing).

knit and purl combos

I did the sampler called “Experience it for Yourself”. I didn’t do the requested 20 stitches, but instead made mine with 12 stitches. It begins with knit 1, purl 1, then knit 2, purl 2, moving on to knit 3, purl 3 and ending with knit 3, purl 2. It does clearly show how different numbers of knits and purls contract or don’t contract. I didn’t do the mistake stitch or knit the welt version that has horizontal rows of knits and purls.

I’m skipping a few sections about knitting loops and the connections, knitted mirror writing and dropping stitches to see how a piece changes measurements.

I loved the section on primary, secondary and tertiary colors. Good primer on color – even on black and white pages!

The last section of Chapter 3 is about knitting a version of a Log Cabin Quilt. Describing the way that these quilts are created with light, lighter, lightest and dark, darker, darkest colors makes so much sense. Oh and one extra color for a center square. The Mitered-Corner Log Cabin Square is definitely something I want to try. It speaks to the orderly “Virgo Me”. I wasn’t crazy about the second version called a quilted square.

Chapter 4 is called “The Stories of Our Projects”. It’s about 30 pages so this will be the subject of the next part of The Knitting Way adventure!